In recent years, headphones have come to be frequently used outdoors as well, following the development of portable acoustic equipment. Moreover, with the progress of the age of individualization especially amongst youngsters, demand for design-focused products is being heightened also with respect to headphones, and headphones of an ear-hook type without a headband have been widely used, and also used outdoors more and more frequently.
When a pair of ear-hook type headphones is carried and stored, since a thin rod-like ear-hook arm is installed in a casing, and the left and right casings are independently provided, a cord easily becomes entangled with the casings, which is greatly inconvenient. In order to deal with such a cord, there has conventionally been a structure that solves the trouble caused by a cord, in which a cord is retracted and wound around a reel in a headphone body by means of the resilience of a spring. On the other hand, in the case of headphones provided with a mechanism which retracts and winds a plug-attached cord, if a lock of retracting and winding is released with the headphones being worn on a user's auricles, it is possible that a plug at the end could hit his/her auricle or face when pulled in with great force, which is unfavorable.
As a means to solve the above problem, a mechanism in which by putting a plug into a casing, a lock that prevents a cord from being retracted and wound into the casing is released so as to retract and wind the cord has been proposed. FIG. 12 is a figure showing an example of headphones provided with a conventional cord-winding mechanism. A hanger 91 to be worn on an auricle is attached to a housing 90 storing a loudspeaker unit inside. Further, a cord 92, in which a plug 93 is attached to the end thereof, is retracted and wound by a winding mechanism 94 inside the housing 90. The retracting and winding by the winding mechanism 94 uses the resilience of a spring incorporated, and are normally locked. Hereupon, a plug insertion portion 95 into which the plug 93 at the end of the cord 92 is inserted is provided in the housing 90, and when the plug 93 is inserted into the plug insertion portion 95 as shown in FIG. 12, an end 93a of the plug 93 unlocks the winding mechanism 94 as shown by the arrow R to retract and wind the cord 92.
In Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-10385 issued by Japan Patent Office, examples of a headphone provided with a conventional cord-winding mechanism are disclosed.
However, in the structure shown in FIG. 12, when the retracting and winding have finished, a bushing portion 93b of the plug 93 becomes bent due to the nature of the structure, and it remains bent to be shown unattractively until the next time when used, and excessive force is applied to the cord. In addition, bending the cord in this manner leads to durability problems such as the breaking of a signal line inside the cord.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide headphones with a cord-winding mechanism that is capable of retracting and winding a cord favorably.